I’m going to be starting my first chessboard and wondering the best way to go about it.

I was planning on facegrain squares and a mitered frame around the squares, with a drawer unit underneath (which is mostly irrelevant for my question). The usual cutting board approach won’t work because I’d just be gluing endgrain, but perhaps with biscuits for the endgrain strips? However, a recent FWW article on chessboards strongly suggests using veneer for the squares on top of a suitable substrate over all alternatives.

How have you done it? What would you recommend? Thanks!

-- Optimists are usually disappointed. Pessimists are either right or pleasantly surprised. I tend to be a disappointed pessimist.

11 replies so far

I have made three of them inclucing the drawers underneath. There are a few blogs that cover making the checkerboard part. A search should find them for you. I make the squares of 3/8” stock and glue to 1/2” ply and add border. Basicly I cut strips and glue them up , then cut them the other way and reassemble with the required offset to make the chekerboaard pattern.

Another idea I’ve seen (but haven’t tried, by way of full disclosure) is using dowels to join the pieces. Space them 1/16” or so apart to compensate for movement and put them on top of a plywood substrate. It gives it more of a raised look as opposed to what I think you’d end up with using veneer. Using a drill press for the dowels ensures the spacing and height will be perfect for all the squares.

I strongly recommend Steve in Marins youtube video on making a chessboard. Those were the firsts hollywood like appearances of Steve. The 7 part video is a must since he covers all the aspects of such building. From the rough lumbeer to the finishing. I’l tell you that this was my first woodworking project. I blog my firsyt steps depicturing the first chessboard in this blog

I tried a 1/16th veneering type, which is still in progress. So far I found more simple the making of the board as Steve explains, for a board that size.

Thanks guys, that was helpful. I’ve made many cutting boards but my concern here was the wood movement and endgrain glueup. Sounds like using 3/8” squares glued to each other and a stable substrate should be ok.

-- Optimists are usually disappointed. Pessimists are either right or pleasantly surprised. I tend to be a disappointed pessimist.

I made a chessboard in HS, and two similar types of boards since. None have been perfect, but I can honestly say the veneer style boards are far easier, and more practical.

First of all, boards are meant to be, for the most part, lightweight (easy to move to a table, unless the board is the table, easy to adjust for a better view, and easy enough to put away… Unless you’re building a piece of decor and not a used board, which in that case, I often feel one should build a piece of decor rather than a game, though to each their own), easy to use, typically get very minimal wear (you typically aren’t using them as cutting boards, or to pound in nails. It isn’t supposed to be fido’s chew toy, and your pieces probably aren’t going to have sandpaper bottoms).

Because of all this, veneer is a great way to take care of all these needs without the headaches of using blocks. Regardless of veneer or blocks, you’re still going to need a substrate or bottom to build upon. The wood is still going to move, veneer or block, though my experience has taught me veneer, properly adhered and finished, isn’t really as mobile as blocks. And, unless you want end grain to show, you’re going to be gluing either face to face or side to face (dependent upon the veneer). The veneer typically will give you more bang for your buck, as you can get a variety of interesting figures, typically at a lower cost, and even a bigger variety of materials (such as shell).

I also found the ease of cutting veneer to be of benefit when trying to get perfect squares… Which is to be honest, where most of my boards have failed. (though, to be honest, my first attempt in HS was to create individual tiles, and didn’t take into account the problem with the accumulation of errors).

The other reason I prefer veneer for this particular application is that blocks end up making boards thicker (I also only use about 1/4” thick 15×15 plywood squares I get from casey’s wood supply, http://www.caseyswood.com/shoppingcart/zen-cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1329 more on that in a sec.) which means more weight, and less mobility. Sometimes a chess game is nice at a coffee shop for example, or perhaps I might want to display my board on my desk, but play in my living room. It just makes it more user friendly.

I also suggest a plywood substrate, regardless of tiles or veneer. Plywood is not an evil thing. Plywood is resistant to warping, buckling, cupping, and other movement type issues regular wood has, with a bit more strength from the crossgrain pattern, all of which will benefit your board.

I realize this discussion is a few weeks old but thought I’s pipe up anyway. When wanting to make a chess board I had an adverse reaction to building it the traditional way of laying up a face grain “cuttingboard”, crosscutting strips, alternating every other then regluing. Probably because I don’t have a great table saw or sled and the crosscuts and cleanup of the strips that would be needed seemed like alot of work…I don’t know.

So I did it a little differently. And as I probably should have guessed…it was alot of work also. But I am glad I took this route…I was very please with the finished product. After 440+ days, I have had no issue with expansion of the base wood, in my case pauduk.

I did a chess board 25 years ago using the method Jim Finn described above. It was glued with PVA glue, clamed with three sash cramps (2 below, one above to stop bucking). No biscuits, dowels, tongue & groove, nothing. The chess board is still perfect.

Interestingly, I also put on a mitred frame around the edge, and that has recently broken the glue (not sure yet how I’m going to fix that).

-- I may have lost my marbles, but I still have my love of woodworking